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From: avatar@notebook.aus.xanadu.com (Andrew Pam)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace,alt.hypertext,alt.internet.services,comp.groupware,comp.infosystems,comp.infosystems.interpedia,alt.answers,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: Xanadu World Publishing Repository Frequently Asked Questions
Followup-To: comp.infosystems
Date: 27 Apr 1994 10:25:13 GMT
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Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions
Keywords: Xanadu Distributed Hypermedia Publishing Repository
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Archive-name: xanadu-faq
Last-modified: 1994/04/27
Version: 1.31
Xanadu FAQ
==========
This document contains information about the Xanadu Project which
may be of interest to the general public and readers of the
comp.infosystems_ newsgroup. It is currently maintained by
avatar@xanadu.com_ (Andrew Pam) of Xanadu Australia and posted
approximately monthly.
This FAQ and other Xanadu_information_ are also available at
http://www.aus.xanadu.com/ or via gopher gopher.aus.xanadu.com.
Questions in this document are numbered, and answers are labelled
with letters of the alphabet. Thus 1 is the first question, and
1a is the first answer to the first question. Suggestions for
additions, corrections and expansion of the material in this
document are welcomed.
Contents
--------
1_ What is Xanadu?
2_ What are the features of a Xanadu system?
3_ How can I contact Project Xanadu?
4_ What is the history of the Xanadu system?
5_ What has been written about Xanadu and Hypertext?
6_ What Xanadu-related merchandise is currently available?
7_ What is the history of the name "Xanadu"?
_1 What is Xanadu?
------------------
_1a
Xanadu is a trade and service mark of Project Xanadu for computer
software and services for electronic publishing and media
manipulation. See question 3_ below for Project Xanadu contact
details.
_1b
Xanadu is the original hypertext and interactive multimedia
system, under continuous development since 1960. See question 4_
below for the history of the Xanadu system.
_1c
Xanadu is an overall paradigm - an ideal and general model for all
computer use, based on sideways connections among documents and
files. This paradigm is especially concerned with electronic
publishing, but also extends to all forms of storing, presenting
and working with information. It is a unifying system of order
for all information, non-hierarchical and side-linking, including
electronic publishing, personal work, organisation of files,
corporate work and groupware.
All data (for instance, paragraphs of a text document) may be
connected sideways and out of sequence to other data (for
instance, paragraphs of another text document). This requires new
forms of storage, and invites new forms of presentation to show
these connections.
On a small scale, the paradigm means a model of word processing
where comments, outlines and other notes may be stored
conceptually adjacent to a document, linked to it sideways. On a
large scale, the paradigm means a model of publishing where anyone
may quote from and publish links to any already-published
document, and any reader may follow these links to and from the
document.
_1d
Xanadu is an ideal of open electronic publishing based on the
paradigm mentioned in answer 1c_ above. It is intended to be
especially free and fair, where all authors and readers are
considered equal. It is a complete business system for electronic
publishing based on this ideal with a win-win set of arrangements,
contracts and software for the sale of copyrighted material in
large and small amounts. It is a planned world-wide publishing
network based on this business system. It is optimised for a
point-and-click universe, where users jump from document to
document, following links and buying small pieces as they go.
_1e
The Xanadu Australia formal problem definition is:
We need a way for people to store information not as individual
"files" but as a connected literature. It must be possible to
create, access and manipulate this literature of richly formatted
and connected information cheaply, reliably and securely from
anywhere in the world. Documents must remain accessible
indefinitely, safe from any kind of loss, damage, modification,
censorship or removal except by the owner. It must be impossible
to falsify ownership or track individual readers of any document.
This system of literature (the "Xanadu Docuverse") must allow
people to create virtual copies ("transclusions") of any existing
collection of information in the system **regardless of ownership**.
In order to make this possible, the system must guarantee that the
owner of any information will be paid their chosen royalties on any
portions of their documents, no matter how small, whenever and
wherever they are used.
_2 What are the features of a Xanadu system?
--------------------------------------------
* Note: Some releases may not implement all of these features.
_2a
Every Xanadu server is uniquely and securely identified.
_2b
Every Xanadu server can be operated independently or in a network.
_2c
Every user is uniquely and securely identified.
_2d
Every user can search, retrieve, create and store documents.
_2e
Every document can consist of any number of parts each of which
may be of any data type.
_2f
Every document can contain links of any type including virtual
copies ("transclusions") to any other document in the system
accessible to its owner. Permission to link to a document is
explicitly granted by the act of publication.
_2g
Every document can contain a royalty mechanism at any desired
degree of granularity to ensure payment on any portion accessed,
including virtual copies ("transclusions") of all or part of the
document.
_2h
Every document is uniquely and securely identified.
_2i
Every document can have secure access controls.
_2j
Every document can be rapidly searched, stored and retrieved
without user knowledge of where it is physically stored.
_2k
Every document is automatically moved to physical storage
appropriate to its frequency of access from any given location.
_2l
Every document is automatically stored redundantly to maintain
availability even in case of a disaster.
_2m
Every Xanadu service provider can charge their users at any rate
they choose for the storage, retrieval and publishing of
documents.
_2n
Every transaction is secure and auditable only by the parties to
that transaction.
_2o
The Xanadu client-server communication protocol is an openly
published standard. Third-party software development and
integration is encouraged.
_3 How can I contact Project Xanadu?
------------------------------------
_3a
By posting to the comp.infosystems_ newsgroup. Members of the
Project Xanadu team monitor and contribute to the newsgroup on a
regular basis.
_3b
By email to avatar@xanadu.com_ or by snail mail to:
Xanadu Australia,
P.O. Box 409, Canterbury VIC 3126 Australia.
_3c
By snail mail to:
Project Xanadu, 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito CA 94965 USA.
_4 What is the history of the Xanadu system?
--------------------------------------------
Ted Nelson thought up the whole thing in 1960, and has been
speaking and publishing about the idea since 1965. In that year
he also coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" for
non-sequential writings and branching presentations of all types.
(The term "interactive multimedia" seems to have become popular
recently.)
Since that time there have been a long series of changing designs
embodying these ideas:
1960:
Nelson's designs showed two screen windows connected by visible
lines, pointing from parts of an object in one window to
corresponding parts of an object in another window. No existing
windowing software provides this facility even today.
1965:
Nelson's design concentrated on the single-user system and was
based on "zipper lists", sequential lists of elements which could
be linked sideways to other zipper lists for large non-sequential
text structures.
1970:
Nelson invented certain data structures and algorithms called the
"enfilade" which became the basis for much later work (still
proprietary to Xanadu Operating Company, Inc.)
1972:
Implementations ran in both Algol and Fortran.
1974:
William Barus extended the enfilade concept to handle
interconnection.
1979:
Nelson assembled a new team (Roger Gregory, Mark Miller, Stuart
Greene, Roland King and Eric Hill) to redesign the system.
1981:
K. Eric Drexler created a new data structure and algorithms for
complex versioning and connection management.
The Project Xanadu team completed the design of a universal
networking server for Xanadu, described in various editions of Ted
Nelson's book "Literary Machines" (see answer 6b_ below).
1983:
Xanadu Operating Company, Inc. (XOC, Inc.) was formed to complete
development of the 1981 design.
1988:
XOC, Inc. was acquired by Autodesk, Inc. and amply funded, with
offices in Palo Alto and later Mountainview California. Work
continued with Mark Miller as chief designer.
The 1981 design (now called Xanadu 88.1) was topped off but Miller
began a redesign. Xanadu 88.1 was not subjected to quality
control or released as a product.
Dean Tribble and Ravi Pandya became co-designers and work on the
redesign continued.
1992:
Autodesk entered into the throes of an organisational shakeup and
dropped the project, after expenditures on the order of five
million US dollars. Rights to continued development of the XOC
server were licensed to Memex, Inc. of Palo Alto, California and
the trademark "Xanadu" was re-assigned to Nelson.
1993:
Nelson re-thought the whole thing and respecified Xanadu
publishing as a system of business arrangements. Minimal
specifications for a publishing system were created under the name
"Xanadu Light", and Andrew Pam of Serious Cybernetics in
Melbourne, Australia was licensed to continue development.
_5 What has been written about Xanadu and Hypertext?
----------------------------------------------------
* "As We May Think"
_Vannevar Bush, The Atlantic Monthly July 1945
* "A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing and the Indeterminate"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of the ACM 20th national conference 1965
* "The Hypertext"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of the World Documentation Federation 1965
* "Suggestion for an On-Line Braille Display"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of the Society for Information Display
autumn 1965
* "Computer-Indexed Film Handling"
Ted Nelson, SMPTE conference preprint autumn 1965
* "New Media and Creativity Systems"
Ted Nelson, graphical brochure intended to expound computer
graphics and related concepts circa 1966
* "Hypertext Notes"
Ted Nelson, ten brief essays on hypertext forms circulated in
manuscript circa 1966
* "Getting It Out of Our System"
Ted Nelson, in Schecter, "Information Retrieval: A Critical View",
Thompson Books 1967
* "A Hypertext Editing System for the 360"
Ted Nelson, Steven Carmody et al. in Faiman and Nievergelt
(editors), "Pertinent Concepts in Computer Graphics", University
of Illinois Press 1969
* "No More Teacher's Dirty Looks"
Ted Nelson, Computer Decisions September 1970
Partially reprinted in Les Brown and Sema Marks, "Electric Media",
Harcourt 1974
Fully reprinted in Ted Nelson, "Computer Lib" 1974
* "Barnum-Tronics"
Ted Nelson, Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin December 1970
* "Las Vegas Confrontation Sit-Out: A CAI Radical's View from Solitary"
Ted Nelson, SIGCUE Newsletter 1971
* "As We Will Think"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of the Online '72 conference,
Brunel University, Uxbridge England
* "A Conceptual Framework for Man-Machine Everything"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of the (U.S.) National Joint Computer
Conference 1973
* "Computer Lib/Dream Machines"
Ted Nelson, self-published 1974
* "Computopia and Cybercrud"
Ted Nelson, in Levien (editor), "Computers in Instruction", The
Rand Corporation 1974
* "Computer Graphics as a Way of Life"
Ted Nelson, Tom DeFanti and Dan Sandin,
proceedings of the first SIGGRAPH conference 1974
* "Data Realms and Magic Windows"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of ACPA-5 Association of Computer
Programmers and Analysts 1975
* "A Dream for Irving Snerd"
Ted Nelson, Creative Computing magazine circa July 1977
* "Electronic Publishing and Electronic Literature"
Ted Nelson, in Edward DeLand (editor), "Information Technology in
Health Science Education", Plenum Press 1978
* "Replacing the Printed Word: A Complete Literary System"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of the World Computer Conference 1980
pages 1013--1023, S.H. Lavington (editor),
"Information Processing 80", North-Holland Publishing Company 1980
* "Interactive Systems and the Design of Virtuality"
Ted Nelson, Creative Computing magazine November & December 1980
* "Literary Machines"
Ted Nelson, self-published 1981
* "The Magicians, the Snark and the Camel"
Ted Nelson, pages 128--156, Creative Computing magazine
volume 7 #11 November 1981
* "A New Home for the Mind"
Ted Nelson, Datamation magazine March 1982
* "The Prophet from Xanadu"
Clifford Barney, PC World magazine volume 1 #3 circa June 1983
* "Computopia Now!"
Ted Nelson, pages 349--351 in Steve Ditlea (editor),
"Digital Deli", Workman Publishing 1984
* "Tools for Thought: The People and Ideas behind the NEXT Computer
Revolution"
Howard Rheingold, Simon and Schuster 1985
(Especially page 24 and pages 295--305)
* "Engines of Creation: Challenges and Choices of the Last
Technological Revolution"
K. Eric Drexler, Anchor/Doubleday 1986
(Especially pages 220--230)
* Article in The Economist (London) 23 August 1986
* "A Vision of the Future"
Ted Nelson, Publishers Weekly 23 November 1986
* "The Tyranny of the File"
Ted Nelson, Datamation magazine 15 December 1986
* "Computer Lib/Dream Machines"
Ted Nelson, second edition Microsoft Press 1987
* "Literary Machines 87.1"
Ted Nelson, self-published 1987
* "All for One and One for All"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of the Hypertext '87 conference November 1987
* "Managing Immense Storage"
Ted Nelson, pages 225--238, BYTE magazine volume 13 #1
January 1988
* "Literary Machines 88.1"
Ted Nelson, self-published 1988
* Hypertext '87 keynote address
Andries van Dam, pages 887--895, CACM volume 31 #7 July 1988
* "Virtual World Without End"
Ted Nelson, keynote to the CyberArts International conference
7 September 1990 (See answer 6b_ below)
* "Literary Machines 90.1"
Ted Nelson, self-published 1990
* "HyperTed"
Steve Ditlea, pages 201--210, PC/Computing magazine October 1990
* "Literary Machines 91.1"
Ted Nelson, self-published 1991
* "Intellectual property rights for digital library and hypertext
publishing systems: An analysis of Xanadu"
Pamela Samuelson & Robert Glushko, pages 39--50, proceedings of
the ACM Conference on Hypertext 1991
* "Two Men, Two Visions of One Computer World, Indivisible"
Andrew Pollack, page 13, The New York Times 8 December 1991
* "Xanadu Hypermedia Server Developer Documentation"
The Xanadu Operating Company, Inc. 15 July 1992
* "TidBITS#30/Xanadu"
Ian Feldman, TidBITS ezine issue_#30_ 1992
* "Literary Machines 93.1"
Ted Nelson, self-published 1993
* "Intellectual property rights for digital library and hypertext
publishing systems"
Pamela Samuelson & Robert Glushko, pages 237--261, Harvard Journal
of Law & Technology Spring 1993
* "Electric Word: Xanadu Redux"
pages 25--26, WiReD magazine issue 1.2 May/June 1993
* "TidBITS#204"
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS ezine issue_#204_ 29 November 1993
* "WWW Activity at Hypertext '93"
Kevin Hughes, WWW_page_ 29 November 1993
* "State of the Art Review on Hypermedia Issues and Applications"
V. Balasubramian, WWW_pages_ March 1994
* "A pleasure dome for the digital dreamer"
Lisa Mitchell, pages 23--25 The Age (Melbourne) issue 43,324
12 April 1994
* "Publishing in the Point-and-Click Universe"
Ted Nelson, proceedings of the First Australian National
Convergence Symposium 13--15 April 1994
_6 What Xanadu-related merchandise is currently available?
----------------------------------------------------------
_6a
The book "Computer Lib / Dream Machines" by Ted Nelson, 1987
Microsoft Press edition ISBN 0-914845-49-7 is available from all
good booksellers for US$18.95 retail.
_6b
The following items are available from:
Mindful Press
3020 Bridgeway #295
Sausalito, California 94965 USA
Phone: (415) 331-4422
Fax: (415) 332-0136
* Books:
* "Computer Lib" by Ted Nelson, 1976 collector's edition for $100.
* "Literary Machines" by Ted Nelson, 1993 edition for $25.
* "Xanadu Hypermedia Server documentation", 1993 draft for $250.
* Papers:
* "Virtual World Without End", 16 pages for $10.
* "Xanadu Space '93", 8 pages for $10.
* Videos:
* "A Technical Overview of the Xanadu System", NTSC $75, PAL $100.
* Misc:
* Xanadu Flaming X pin for $50.
Add $5 postage and handling per $50 ordered, plus $15 for orders
outside the USA. All prices quoted are in US dollars.
_7 What is the history of the name "Xanadu"?
--------------------------------------------
_7a
Marco Polo mentioned the original palace "Shan-Du", somewhere
near Beijing, in his autobiography.
_7b
Samuel Taylor Coleridge_ published the poem "Kubla_Khan_",
considered the sexiest in the English language, in the early 19th
century. Supposedly Coleridge wrote a thousand lines in his mind
while in an opiate trance, but was interrupted while trying to
write it down by the infamous "person from Porlock" who bothered
him on trivial business and made him forget the rest of the poem.
This has been disputed by scholars who didn't believe there
actually could have been any more to the poem. Coleridge was
inspired by the autobiography of Marco Polo mentioned in answer 7a_
above, which he was reading.
_7c
Orson Welles, in his famous film "Citizen Kane", named the palace
of Charles Foster Kane "Xanadu" after the Coleridge poem_. It was
based on the real life palace of San Simeon owned by William
Randolph Hearst.
_7d
Ted Nelson named his World Publishing Repository (trademark of
Project Xanadu) project after the Coleridge poem_, to suggest "the
magic place of literary memory where nothing is forgotten".
_7e
The secret hideout of Mandrake the Magician in the comic strip of
the same name was called "Xanadu" (presumably after the Coleridge
poem_).
_7f
The rock group Rush released a song called Xanadu, obviously
inspired by "Kubla_Khan_", on their 1970s album "Farewell to
Kings".
_7g
The 1980 movie "Xanadu" starring Olivia Newton-John as a muse was
also named after the Coleridge poem_, as an allusion to literary
inspiration. She also sang the title song.
_7h
The pop group "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" released a 1984 album
named "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome", on which the title song
contains the line "In Xanadu did Kubla_Khan_ a pleasure dome
erect".
_7i
David Butler based the plot of his 1986 science-fiction novel
"The Men Who Mastered Time" around the story of "Kubla_Khan_".
_7j
Douglas Adams used the story of the creation of the Coleridge
poem_ mentioned in answer 7b_ above as a central part of the plot
of his science-fiction novel "Dirk Gently's Wholistic Detective
Agency".
_7k
Douglas Adams wrote a 1990 BBC Television documentary called
"Hyperland" starring himself, former "Doctor Who" Tom Baker, Ted
Nelson and many computer industry luminaries. The documentary
discussed the Xanadu system and quoted "Kubla_Khan_".
Credits
-------
This FAQ was written by avatar@xanadu.com_ (Andrew Pam). Much of
the material in the answers to questions 1_, 4_, 5_ and 6_ was
graciously provided by Ted Nelson.
.. _poem http://www.nwu.edu/Coleridge_/STC_quotes_html/Kubla_Kahn.html
.. _issue_#30 http://www.aus.xanadu.com/0h/nelson90
.. _issue_#204 http://www.aus.xanadu.com/0h/tidbits
.. _comp.infosystems news:comp.infosystems
.. _avatar@xanadu.com mailto:avatar@xanadu.com
.. _Xanadu_information http://www.aus.xanadu.com/
.. _WWW_pages http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~dduchier/misc/hypertext_review/
.. _WWW_page http://www.eit.com/reports/ht93/ht93.report.html
.. _Vannevar http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~dduchier/misc/vbush/as-we-may-think.html
.. _Kubla_Khan http://www.nwu.edu/Coleridge/STC_quotes_html/Kubla_Kahn.html
.. _Coleridge http://www.nwu.edu/Coleridge/
$$